Los Angeles Times file photo
Update: As nearly everyone has guessed, this is John Loder. Above, a photo published Oct. 5, 1928, with a story saying that he was making his U.S. screen debut in a talking picture for Paramount, "Half an Hour." which was released as "The Doctor's Secret."
John Loder, 90; Debonair Star of '30s, '40s
January 20, 1989
By BURT A. FOLKART, Times Staff Writer
John Loder, the aristocratic
and debonair romantic star of films that began with early American
silents and extended over more than three decades, has died at the age
of 90.
The New York Times said in its Thursday editions that he
died somewhere in England late last month. Further details were not
available.
Born John Lowe in York, England, Loder's off-screen
persona was often as fascinating as the tweedy, pipe-smoking gentlemen
of leisure he normally portrayed on the screen.
The third of his five wives was Hedy Lamarr, and newspaper clippings of the 1930s and '40s dwell more on his marriages and social activities than they do his films.
Born the son of a British general, he attended Eton and the Royal Military College at Sandhurst before serving as a lieutenant with the 15th Hussars in North Africa, France and Turkey during World War I. He was a prisoner of war for a time and titled his 1977 autobiography "Hollywood Hussar."
In 1926 he played a subordinate role to German starlet Marlene Dietrich in a dance scene in Alexander Korda's "Madame Wants No Children."
By
the early 1930s he was making pictures in both Hollywood and Europe and
appeared in Paramount's early talkie, "The Doctor's Secret" in 1929.
He
continued to make films in both his adopted land (he became a citizen
of the United States in 1947) and his native England until 1970, when
he was seen in "Cause for Alarm," his first on-screen role in a decade.
That was his final credit.
In all he appeared in more than 60
films. He probably will best be remembered for his work as the eldest
son in "How Green Was My Valley," opposite Lamarr in "Dishonored Lady" and in the lachrymose classic "Now Voyager" which starred Bette Davis.
His other pictures included the 1937 version of "King Solomon's Mines," Alfred Hitchcock's "Sabotage," "Lorna Doone," "Gideon of Scotland Yard" and "Passage to Marseilles."
Loder's fifth and last wife was Julia Lagomarsino, widow of an Argentine cattle rancher. For a time they made their home in both Argentina and England.
Just
a
reminder on how this works: I post the mystery photo on Monday and
reveal the answer on Friday … or on Saturday if I have a hard time
picking only five pictures — sometimes it's difficult to choose. To
keep the mystery photo from getting
lost in the other entries, I move it from Monday to Tuesday to
Wednesday, etc., adding a photo every day.
I have to approve
all comments, so if your guess is posted immediately, that means you're
wrong. (And if a wrong guess has already been submitted by someone
else, there's no point in submitting it again.) If you're right, you
will have to wait until Friday. There's no need to submit your guess
five times. Once is enough. The only prize is bragging rights.
The answer to last week's mystery star: Lois Wilson!
Los Angeles Times file photo
Update: Merle Oberon and John Loder in "Thunder in the East," June 9, 1935.
Here's our mystery fellow with a mystery companion. Please congratulate Jany, "Laura" fan Waldo Lydecker, Mary Mallory, Megan Bailey and Jeff Hanna for correctly identifying him!
Los Angeles Times file photo
Update: John Loder and his wife Micheline Cheirel, Nov. 30, 1940.
Here's another pictures of our mystery guest with a mysterious companion. Please congratulate Don Danard, Donna Hill, Dewey Webb, Eve Golden and co-worker Mel, Carmen, Sue, Claire Lockhart, Grant Lockhart (are you guys related?), Nancy Price, William, Roget-L.A., LC, Michael Ryerson and Cinnamon Carter for identifying him.
Los Angeles Times file photo
Update: John Loder and Hedy Lamarr, right, at the baptism of their daughter Denise, held by Bette Davis, with the Rev. J. Herbert Smith at All Saints Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills, April 9, 1946.
And another picture of our mystery guest with some mystery companions. Please congratulate Mike Hawks, Barbara Klein, Candy C and Ann Turpin for correctly identifying him.
Los Angeles Times file photo
An undated photo of John Loder and his "better half" thanks to The Times' art department.
